SterlingBen

As echoed elsewhere on the forum I think this is the year the pendulum swings from Vinegar Syndrome to Severin (maybe).

SterlingBen

Also if you're into anime there seems to be some very good prices for some embarrassing to watch items over here:

https://www.sentaifilmworks.com/coll...rice-ascending

$15 for Parasyte seems pretty good.

Brian T

Welp, looks like I was right about the Steckler box, but not the Emanuelle box, which is still pretty fresh for a sale. I paid $100 at Oldies for the Steckler box, so depending on whether “SRP” means their MSRP of $307 or their web price of $209, or should be either $154-ish or $104-ish. I would assume the latter.

I have some of the others from their previous half-price boxed set sale, which was in June 2022. Something about the current prices on their site didn’t sit right, though, so I looked up my order from that sale and here’s what I paid:

Lenzi Baker - $45
Andy Milligan - $70
Eurocrypt 1 - $60
Nasty Habits - $40

Now, you double those, and you don’t quite get the prices listed on Severin’s site now, which are:

Lenzi Baker - $109
Andy Milligan - $175
Eurocrypt 1 - $147
Nasty Habits - $98

So, cut those in half (assuming these are the prices they’re discounting from) and it’s clear they’ve bumped up their catalog prices in over the past year or so. In fairness, the half-off prices ane basically around $10-17 more than last time, which isn’t terrible for what you get in these sets, but I guess it’s just a sign of our inflationary times.

Found another order from that same date for the ALL THE HAUNTS box. I’m not certain that was a half-price deal at $110, but the math says it must’ve been, as $220 sounded about right when it came out. Now it’s priced at $237, so 50% off would be $118.50, which like the others is still in the ballpark.

Regarding the Emanuelle box, the current price in the Grindhouse sale is cheaper at $125 than it would be if it were available in this Severin sale (in theory, $136), plus there’s no guarantee they won’t quietly raise their site price over the next year or so before the next box sale. Just a thought.

Finally, not sure if it’s been up a while, or if it just went up recently, but themore-order for the 4K/Blu Danza Macabre Vol. 2 set is here:
https://severinfilms.com/en-ca/colle...lu-ray-box-set

Brian T

Further to my post above, I thought it might be worth comparing the prices of these Severin boxes in Grindhouse Video’s current sale against Severin’s potential prices next week, and some are lower at each place, albeit not substantially:

Nasty Habits
Grindhouse: $45
Severin: $49

Andy Milligan
Grindhouse: $90
Severin: $87.50

Eurocrypt 1
Grindhouse: $68
Severin: $73.50

Eurocrypt 2
Grindhouse: $62
Severin: $66.50

Steckler
Grindhouse: $100
Severin: $104.50

Lenzi Baker
Grindhouse: $55
Severin: $54.50

Violent Streets
Grindhouse: $62
Severin: $66.50

All The Haunts
Grindhouse: $120
Severin: $118.50

Psychotic Women
Grindhouse: $50
Severin: $51

Wings of Disaster
Grindhouse: $22.50
Severin: $24.50

This assumes, of course, that Severin knocks 50% off the retail prices as they appear now, and don’t surprise us by going even lower. Grindhouse’s sale runs to November 28, so there’s at least time to compare once Severin’s sale begins.

SterlingBen

Thanks for the comp, I will cart the 3 I am looking at on Grindhouse and do a quick 1 2 before pulling the button

dex14

Oscilloscope: https://store.oscilloscope.net/
Save up to 50% on nearly everything in the shop, now through Friday with code OSALEOSCOPE!

Toddarino

Thanks for the heads up on the Grindhouse sale. I really want to pick up Violent Streets and the Lee vol. 2 set. I’m assuming Severins shipping prices will be astronomical like the last sale.

PhantomStranger

Highly recommend "Is The Order a Rabbit?" seasons 1 and 2 at that price if you need something to hit the free shipping level. Delightful little show, absolutely adorable. And Amagi Brilliant Park is recommended for everyone, selling it for $5 seems almost criminal. Great one-season series, one of the funnier anime I've ever seen. I think I paid nearly $60 for the limited edition set back in the day.

dex14

Cinema Guild: https://store.cinemaguild.com/homevideo/SFNT.html
"A quick reminder our annual Cyber Weekend Sale gets started at midnight ET on Friday. We'll reveal all the available titles in the next few days..."

Brian T

Sentai seems to have this sale nearly every month, and the majority of the same titles do appear in it, but the lowest prices are kinda tough to resist. Even the ones that end up 'sold out' return for future sales, so they seem to have endless stock, or long licences. I'm not much of an anime collector outside of higher-end anime movies, but there does seem to be an abundance of one-season shows nowadays. I do find their listings a bit deceptive, though, when they say "Complete Collection" in the title, and then you read through the details a notice it's only Season 1. Then you have to research and see if the show actually had more than one season. If it does, that's usually a time commitment I'm not up for, and one reason I've always stuck to anime movies instead (that, and the higher production values).

That said, I did put together an order yesterday (already shipped) that included PARASYTE, partly based on SterlingBen's recommendation and other reviews I've read over the years, but mainly because I enjoyed the two live-action movies based on the same material and figured the series does seem to be self-contained, meaning I don't have to buy another bunch of season sets to complete it. Also, back in the 80's I remember finding a bargain VHS with a couple of episodes of VOTOMS on it, and have been eyeing the complete collection through several Sentai sales in recent years, so I finally picked that up. It totally flies in the face of what I just said about the time commitment, and who knows if I'll ever get past a few episodes (I do recall it being rather cool for its time), but $23 for over 40 hours of programs didn't seem too shabby. The rest was a mix of movies I've already seen and didn't mind upgrading (VENUS WARS, GUNBUSTER [I've also seen the complete version of this, but will wait for a better price], SHORT PEACE, GARDEN OF WORDS, INITIAL D LEGEND (theatrical collection), and then a few blind-buy cheapies just because (AURA, FLOWERS OF EVIL, PET SHOP OF HORRORS, and SCHOOL–LIVE!). Had I seen these other posts, I might've added the RABBIT and AMAGI shows, not sure.

I've probably mentioned this before, ages ago, but one thing I appreciate with some anime companies is the fact that they'll regularly put complete series on Blu-ray in SD format, so, far more episodes on way less physical media. And nobody bats an eye about it, which is great. I think I've only ever bought one so far, a few years back (well, two now, with the VOTOMS set), but the quality was perfectly good. I assume they do it because the materials don't exist for HD transfers, or the low sales expectations for older programs, or whatever, but it's an idea I always thought might catch on with other non-anime companies, especially those peddling old public domain movie collections, or studios wanting to keep old sitcoms and TV series with increasingly limited public interest in circulation but without forcing people to buy multiple unwieldy cardboard-boxed season sets to get the job done.

Brian T

Not sure if this is a great deal if you have to pay shipping or can't place a larger order, but all versions of the excellent INVADERS FROM MARS restoration are reduced somewhat at Oldies, with a pin for the 'first 100 buyers' (still advertised as I type this, so presumably it's still part of the deal). Prices are lower than Amazon, but I'm not sure about other places.
DVD - $9.99
Blu - $19.98
4K - $24.98

PhantomStranger

Parasyte is a show that wore out its welcome for me. Started out really interesting and kind of fell apart after its first cour (12 episodes).

Brian T

I'll keep that in mind. I always approach anime series with caution, and rarely buy them (the only ones I own are COWBOY BEBOP and EVANGELION, the other 20-25 are all theatrical features, older and newer, including the revamped EVANGELION movies, which have me questioning keeping the series set because they're so much more richly designed and animated). The library system here has a fairly massive anime selection in their disc offerings. If I catch wind of something that could be interesting on this forum or elsewhere, I might see if they have it. In most cases, I sign out the first volume and that's enough. I think it's more about the artwork for me and not the stories, so a sampling is good. Anime movies are much more detailed, and the stories (generally) self-contained, so it's easy to stick with those. Guess I'll see how Parasyte shakes out.

SterlingBen

I was going to skip Sentai this year but will all these recommendations…

Also starting tomorrow:


http://www.epic-pictures.com/store-dvd-blu-ray

Brian T

Flicker Alley Black Friday:

Spiderbite

This is an amazing set and rarely gets under $300. I know it isn't Blu-ray but figured no one would see it who may want it in the dead DVD bargains area.

Dark Shadows: The Complete Original Series Deluxe Edition – MPI Home Video

SterlingBen

MVD sale is live but with $8 mandatory shipping I am out this year.

Quote:

https://mvdshop.com/collections/blackfriday2023

SterlingBen

https://screamteamreleasing.com

Scream Team Releasing is not participating again this year (Last BF sale 2021)

They do seem to have Black Friday free shipping on their normal prices though:

Spend over $60 and get FREE SHIPPING in the USA with code "FRI23FREESHIPUSA" at checkout. Coupon code and Prices only valid beginning 11/23/23 - 11/27/23 11:59 pm

SterlingBen

https://darkforcesuperstore.com/

Dark Forces sale is live.

Look they are selling some of Bill's stuff:

https://darkforcesuperstore.com/zapp...oster-22-x-28/

Brian T

Cool to see Dark Force getting into Hong Kong and especially Taiwan movies. Then again, who isn’t these days since there’s such a large reserve of untapped movies out there beyond the better known stuff coming from Arrow, 88, Eureka, and other bigger labels. There’s a lot of this kinda stuff out there that hasn’t been seen in decades, and I suspect Dark Force may have found a batch buried somewhere and might have more down the road.

Not overly keen on their packaging with the laziest of photoshop comps, but maybe those will change in time. And their listing details could certainly use an editorial polish. Ever since Bill died it seems like the effort going into the promotion side has slipped a bit.

Apparently, SHADOW FIST HUNTER is actually THE SHADOW CHASER, filmed in Taiwan but seemingly produced by a Hong Kong company (?), and word on the webs is that it was indeed a ‘lost’ film.
https://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mht...isplay_set=eng
The Cheung Ling on the cover is actually Pearl Chang Ling, quite famous in the 70's for her martial arts roles. She also produced and directed four of her own wild movies that have had varying releases in the west over the years, most notably bundled together in this set by Gold Ninja Video:
https://goldninjavideo.com/products/...of-pearl-chang
I didn’t get that one before it went OOP, but the films were a mix of aspect ratios and generally pretty rough, so it would be cool if another label (or even Gold Ninja) tried to source better prints.

DEADLY KUNG-FU FACTOR looks pretty cool. Haven’t seen that one either, but star Michael Chan Wai-Man was this big triad gangster in real life, which seemed to lend some authenticity to his roles as both bad guys and good guys. He was in a ton of movies that haven’t really been seen much over here, but I’m sure many of them are lost to time at this point.

By the way, I do recommend VELVET SMOOTH for lovers of low-end blaxploitation schlock (really low end ). I was stunned when that showed up on their site a few weeks back. It’s only ever had some shoddy PD releases in the DVD era. I wouldn’t jump at their $32.99 price though, but I’m sure it will turn up on sale eventually. This fight scene from it has always been one of my more popular uploads:

Brian T

Another Kino ‘Winter Wonderland’ sale starting Tuesday, Nov. 28:

Brian T

Can't remember if this was posted earlier, but Massacre Video’s Black Friday sale is up. Code is FRIDAY at checkout:
https://massacrevideo.com/site/

SterlingBen

Had a couple of blus in cart for Massacre sale but discount code only took off 30%

And the Epic Pictures code doesn't even work at all.

But I am really looking forward to the Terror Vision Sale:

Brian T

Severin's sale is on now, in case anyone hasn't already noticed it. Lotsa bundles, as always. Boxed sets on Saturday.
https://severinfilms.com

SterlingBen

I noticed higher prices on a lot of the under $20 titles this year compared to previous years. Had really expected to spend most of my money there this year but looks like I am just going to be buying their box sets from a 3rd party.


Epic Pictures coupon is now working.